'This album for me is a little more personal than all the other records that I've put out,' 50 Cent says in the blingy headquarters of G-Unit, his Manhattan-based hip hop clothing company. 'So I entitled it Curtis. My grandfather is Curtis Snr, and his first-born is Curtis Jnr. I'm his first grandchild. This is my third album and I'm the third Curtis in the family, so it fit.'

The album was delayed three times, and when there was a lacklustre response to the first two singles, he went back to the studio and cut eight more tracks. 'The process of making this record was different to the first two projects,' he says. 'At first I got a lot of music, but it wasn't what I needed to present to the public at this point. It sounded like things that I had already created. So I didn't use a lot of that material. I decided to work with other people like Timbaland and Justin Timberlake to get a new sound.'

50 Cent's unreleased first album was a hard-hitting work that made his name on the underground scene. Since then, his music has gradually moved towards the hip hop mainstream but his authenticity and street credibility has helped him to keep the respect of hardcore fans. He's been shot, stabbed and spent time in jail. His songs usually tell stories of his life on the streets and he's won kudos for using hip hop to propel himself out of the gangland ghetto.

Rap music started off in the Bronx in the late 70s, but by the early 80s it had taken off in parts of Queens too. Some parts of Queens were almost as run-down as the notorious, gang-infested Bronx. The 70s had seen some neighbourhoods simply abandoned to crack dealers, who sometimes took over whole blocks to use as drug factories. The drug kingpins weren't initially involved in the music scene - that came later. But their glamorous lifestyles, violence, and wealth meant they were adopted as role models by youths who saw no future ahead of them. That's the environment that 50 Cent was born into in 1976.

50 Cent ran a small-time drugs operation in Queens in the 90s and this led to him being jailed for seven months. When he got out, he decided a musical career would be a better option than the drugs racket and started to rap about his experiences. Hip hop is a confrontational music and 50 Cent quickly gained notoriety by attacking established rappers such as Ja Rule in his lyrics (some sources allege henchmen of Ja Rule stabbed him as a retort). His first album Get Rich or Die Tryin' did indeed make him rich, which, he says, is what he always wanted.

50 Cent says he doesn't feel any guilt about his life of crime. 'What happened, happened,' he says. 'The things you go through make you who you are. It was a bad situation, and I did what I had to do to get out of it. There are always ways to get yourself out of bad situations. I used my willpower to get myself out. It's hard to focus on doing well when there's no one around giving encouragement. But with the right motivation, you can make things better than they are. You have to find your own opportunities and make things happen for yourself.'

Now that he's wealthy - he bought Mike Tyson's house in Connecticut for US$4.1 million - doesn't he worry that he won't have anything to write about? After all, it's his songs about life on the streets that have made him famous.

'I've still got a lot of experiences to draw on for my work,' he says. 'I've only been famous for four years. I've got 27 years before that to talk about. I don't have to speak about what's happening at this point in my life. I can speak about what's happened in the past.'

Black America has recently been turning its attention to the influence of rap's stories of drugs and violence on its children. It recognises that rap perpetuates the 'hoods and hookers' image of African-Americans that many have spent years working to eradicate. Even top hip hop producer Russell Simmons - co-founder of the Def Jam record label - had sharp words to say about the subject. Simmons' Hip Hop Action Summit (HHAS) organisation recently asked rap artists to tone down their lyrics in the name of social responsibility. 'We recommend that the recording and broadcast industries voluntarily remove/bleep/delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'nigger',' says the HHAS website.

50 Cent says he respects Simmons' contributions to hip hop, but doesn't agree with the HHAS statement. 'I don't think that hip hop makes such an impression,' he says. 'I don't think that words change a person's attitude. I don't think that there's a person out there who will do something different today because a song came on. If that's so, that person should be in Bellevue, or another institution that will actually look after them. Because they could be influenced by anything.'

He says he thinks rap has got the rough end of the stick: 'Films make more of an impression than rap music, because you actually see realistic violence. But no one attacks them. That's because they make so much money compared to hip hop music, no one dares to try and tone them down.'

Perhaps there's less to worry about now, anyway. Sales of hip hop have been declining in America. White male fans have been deserting the genre, bored with the in-fighting, sexist diatribes and never-ending bling. Even the core black audience dislikes the soft R&B-tinged sounds of today's mainstream rap.

50 Cent isn't worried - he's quickly moved into other areas, establishing himself as a brand. There's his G-Unit clothing range, and his best-selling autobiography Pieces of Weight. There's even a G-Unit books division. He's also made inroads into film with the semi-autobiographical movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' and a role as an Iraqi war veteran in Home of the Brave.

50 cent recently said if his album doesn't outsell rival Kanye West's on the day of release, he'll give up making solo records. 'I want to do so much more,' he says. 'I'm one of those people who's running through a tunnel that won't ever end. There won't be enough accomplishments that I will have achieved.

'I realise that I won't be successful for myself forever. My first record sold 12 million albums. That's an entire career for some people. To keep successful in the future, I'm going to have to be successful on other people's careers. That's why I'm working with other people.'

It seems that we haven't heard the last of the former street hustler from Queens.

Curtis is out on Tuesday